Groovy Shoes: Shadle Park girls, North Central boys win in raucous atmosphere at Arena

One of the best parts of spirit week at the Spokane Arena is to give teams a chance to play on the big court in front of a large student body section that’s cheering and making noise all night long, whether they’re 100% paying attention to what’s happening on the court or not.

Occasionally, a student group will be participating in an organized cheer even when their team has a shooter on the free-throw line. And that’s OK in this situation.

“I love the hype,” Shadle Park forward Kate Pomerinke said. “Made me want to work harder for the team.”

Thursday night the Groovy Shoes spirit game between Shadle Park and North Central featured two of the biggest and loudest student sections of the week.

“I went to North Central, I got to play in Groovy Shoes,” NC girls coach Tim Lamanna said. “I was telling the girls, it’s something I’ll never forget. You’ll always remember this and especially not having it last year.

“We were able to come in with a great atmosphere, work hard and have fun and that’s the biggest message I sent to the girls is, ‘Compete, but have fun doing this. Enjoy this because it’s something you don’t get to experience very often.’ “

Girls

Shadle Park 44, North Central 31: Pomerinke and Kyleigh Archer scored 13 points apiece and the Highlanders (4-14) withstood a late charge and topped the Wolfpack (3-17) in the early game.

“I think we’re on the right track right now,” Archer said. “I think that this game is really gonna boost our confidence.”

“It’s kind of a high school experience that you’ll never forget,” Archer said. “Super cool to be out here.”

Shalene Ervin and Greto Marko scored 10 points apiece for NC.

“It was so much fun,” Marko said. “It was nice to be able to do that kind of thing, and especially after COVID. We didn’t win but to be able to like do something like that again was definitely like a really cool experience.”

The Wolfpack fell behind by as many as 10 points in the second half, but cut the deficit to one in the fourth quarter. Pomerinke hit a 3 from the wing and the Highlanders pulled away.

“I was really excited,” Pomerinke said. “I was able to hit that for my team and I think this is just a great opportunity for us to get going and everything and I was really excited to get it.”

“We just couldn’t get that timely stop, and then we finally did and had a great – they executed, had a great look in the corner and it just didn’t go in,” Lamanna said.

Shadle Park led 16-14 at the half, then reeled off the first six points of the third quarter and the lead grew to double digits.

Ervin finally connected for NC. Marko made a pair from the line and Taylor Ownbey’s 3 with 45 seconds left added to the Wolfpack’s 11-3 run to trim the deficit to four entering the fourth.

Marko bulled her way through the lane for a basket, then made 3 of 4 free throws to make it 32-31 with just over 2 minutes to go.

“She just kept playing,” Lamanna said. “I mean, in the first half, she didn’t do a ton, but she just kept her head down, kept executing, kept working hard and then good things happen.”

“The environment as a whole – especially in the girls game,” Marko said. “There’s not as many fans (at regular game) so to have people like cheering you on is definitely a motivating-like factor.”

Boys

North Central 58, Shadle Park 42: Gelonni Ervin scored 12 points, Elijah Williams added 11 and the Wolfpack (6-14) topped the Highlanders (4-15) in the late game.

Makai Daniels led Shadle Park with nine points.

“This is the best atmosphere,” NC second-year coach Andre Ervin said. “Look at our crowd, look at those stands right there.

“This is an awesome first time for me.”